What is more traditional at the end of the year than the obligatory music roundup? 2009 has been quite a year, musically speaking. A year of discovery, of rediscovery, and of continued enthusiasm.
Top 10 Albums of 2009
Narrowing down all that I have heard in 2009 was an arduous task but I have finally managed it, only 2 days into the new year. Using a combination of memory, last.fm charts, manually browsing my pile of CDs and sitting quietly with a beer in contemplation, I have composed the following list. Here are my top 10 in no particular order:
- Placebo - Battle For The Sun a good mix of hard rock riffs, heavy basslines and lyrics that are easy to sing along to. The album sees the band take another step forward, away from the sparse musical style of their first albums. Here, they experiment with new instruments, and tie the album together with a coherent theme running through all the tracks. According to lead singer Brian Molko, the album is more positive in its outlook than previous offerings.
- Editors - In This Light And On This Evening is a world apart from previous albums, taking on a more industrial synth feel rather than the previous guitar-based records. The result is astoundingly good.
- Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes is a gentle blend of alt-rock guitar, folk melody and soothing 5-part harmonies with the reverb knob turned up to full. The result is a dreamy sound that captures the imagination and makes you take notice, all the while being lulled into a day-dream state.
- Grammatics - Grammatics mixes styles and switches the mood of songs throughout the album, making each one a unique listening experience. From the conventional rock of Murderer, the prog stylings of The Vague Archive, the heavy rock anthemics of Broken Wing or the astoundingly diverse Relentless Fours, there is little in the way of filler here.
- Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum is a distinctly Kasabian album that grows on you the more you listen. From an intially ambivalent response, it's turned into one of my top 10 of 2009. When it speaks to you, in that moment, poetry will be written by everyone, and there will be emus in the zone.
- Doves - Kingdom of Rust is the 4th album from the Manchester band, and refines their sound to produce an album that can be listened to over and again. As noted in a review in the Observer, there is a "dreamy, addictive sadness to proceedings, their customary gruff melancholy now inflated to match the panoramic setting."
- Malakai - Ugly Side of Love is perhaps the strangest album on this list. There is really nothing to compare them to. An album that needs to be heard to be believed.
- Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life represents a further milestone in Lacuna Coil's apparent switch from gothic metal to alternative hard rock. Certainly the most "mainstream" album to date, it's still a solid entry in Lacuna Coil's repertoire.
- Reverend & The Makers - French Kiss In The Chaos is the second outing for the Sheffield based rockers and their outspoken figurehead, the Reverend Jon McClure, with possibly the best album title ever.
- The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love is a rock opera, a concept album, a romance and a tragedy. It's also brilliant.
Honourable Mentions
- Jónsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps is the first album produced by Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers. Like an etheral, experimental version of Sigur Rós, this icelandic ambient post-rock will transport you somewhere entirely ... other. A beautiful piece of work.
- Dead Like Harry - Know The Joy of Good Living is the yet-to-be-released debut album of an up-and-coming Sheffield band. Like many of my favourite bands, they make genre defyingly good music the way they want to, with passion and enthusiasm.
- Hello Citizen - Play This At My Funeral is the second album from US based singer/songwriter Ben Wolman. Combining indie guitar with lyrical themes more usually found in the more miserable depths of death metal, this album gets your toes tapping and your brain thinking "WTF!?" And that, my friends, is a very good thing.
- Electric Six - Kill is the brand new, hot off the press release by the Detroit based rock/disco/punk/new wave/metal/garage band. Not really had much chance to listen to it yet, but based on previous releases, how can it not be awesome?
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago is the product of one man secluded in a cabin in Wisconsin for three months, producing what is described by 23inertia as the most beautiful music she's ever heard. Although technically released in 2008, this album has a special mention because I heard about and purchased it in 2009, and it's really too good to miss.
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